San Pancrazio
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| San Pancrazio | |
|---|---|
| | |
| English name: | St Pancras |
| Dedication: | |
| Denomination: | Roman Catholic |
| Built: | 7th century |
| Contact data | |
| Address: | Piazza San Pancrazio 5/D |
San Pancrazio is an ancient minor basilica and parish and titular church, just west of Trastevere at Piazza San Pancrazio 5/D. This is in the Gianicolense district. The church itself is up a driveway, and is surrounded by the park of the Villa Doria Pamphilj. Pictures of the church at Wikimedia Commons. [1]
Contents |
History
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Early basilicaEdit
The basilica is on the site of the tomb of St Pancras, a 4th century martyr, in the Calepodian cemetery. This was on the ancient Via Vitellia, an offshoot of the Via Aurelia Antica which runs from the present Porta San Pancrazio. The first structure here was an oratory. The cemetery around his tomb grew into a famous catacomb, and Pope St Symmachus (498-514) built a basilica on the site of the oratory. He also had a hospice for pilgrims built adjacent to it.
By tradition, Pope Gregory the Great converted the establishment into a monastery and staffed it with Benedictine monks exiled from Montecassino -but this story is nowadays regarded as unhistorical. It seems rather that there was another monastery in the late 6th century dedicated to St Pancras next to the Lateran, and the foundation at the basilica was initially dedicated to St Victor. The former foundation at the Lateran may have had its source from the tradition that the saint had lived nearby, on the Caelian.
Pope Honorius I (625-638) rebuilt the basilica, and placed the relics of the martyr in a crypt. So, the dedication to St Pancras is thought to date from this time.
7th century basilicaEdit
The present basilica is basically this rebuilding by Honorius, with some changes made in the 12th century. It is no longer thought that any earlier architectural details survive. In 1061 is the first reference to a Benedictine monastery here, under the authority of Cluny. This lasted until 1257, when the Benedictines abandoned the complex to the Cistercians in obscure circumstances. The Cistercian monastery in its turn fell into serious decay, and was suppressed in 1517 when the church was made titular.
In 1606 a major restoration was finally undertaken of the partly ruined church, with early Baroque details to the interior and the present façade added. In 1662 it was entrusted to the Discalced Carmelites, who are still in charge of the parish.
Modern timesEdit
The 19th century was not kind to the church. It was thoroughly looted by the French in 1798, and was partially destroyed by the Garibaldians during their futile defence of the Roman Republic against the French army in 1849. This vandalism included having the shrine broken open and the relics of the martyr disposed of. Whatever the vandals did with them, whether they put them down the toilet or shot them from a cannon, it is the case that not a fragment was recovered. Hence, when substantial necessary repairs were carried out to the church in the later 19th century, a small portion of relics were brought back from the head of the saint at St John Lateran to be enshrined. The church was made parochial in 1931.
St Pancras in EnglandEdit
The story of Benedictine monks being here had an odd outcome. The great French Benedictine abbey of Cluny expanded its reform congregation into England after that country was conquered by the Normans in 1066, and the first great priory that it built was at Lewes in Sussex. It was dedicated to St Pancras because of the tradition. One of the parish churches in the suburbs of London at the time took the name, and passed it on to a train station built next to it in the 19th century. This is now St Pancras International, and if you take a train from the European mainland to London this is where you will arrive. An alternative historical viewpoint is that the dedication of the latter church was Saxon, relating ultimately to the mission to England sent by Pope St Gregory under the authority of St Augustine of Canterbury. One of the first churches built by the mission at Canterbury was dedicated to the saint.
The present titular is Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera.
ExteriorEdit
GatewayEdit
The church is approached through a 17th century Baroque gateway, over which is a faded fresco of the Crucifixion in 
Added by BasilwatkinsosbLayoutEdit
The church building, in brick, is on a classical basilical plan, with a nave and two aisles. The edifice is rather broad for its length. There is a small external segmental apse, and the roofs of nave and aisles are pitched and tiled. They contain dormer windows. To the right of the church is the Carmelite convent, and on the far side of the building abbuting the presbyterium is attached the campanile. This has large arched sound-holes and a little lead cupola.
FaçadeEdit
Added by BasilwatkinsosbInteriorEdit
The nave has arcades of five rectangular piers on each side, with the piers decorated by applied Corinthian pilasters in shallow relief which run up to the entablature below the flat wooden coffered ceiling. The latter is unpainted, and shows the Torres coat of arms flanked by winged putto's heads. Its paintwork was ruined by rain getting in after the church roof was damaged in the 19th century.
The aisles also have coffered wooden ceilings, and end in side chapels. The interior walls and piers are painted in a cream colour. There is a striking stucco coat of arms of Pope Paul V at the apex of the triumphal arch into the nave, with angels as supporters. The mediaeval Cosmatesque floor of the nave was seriously damaged in the looting, and was replaced in the restoration.
The presbyterium has frescoes attributed to Antonio Tempesta on the side walls; to the left, St Pancras is depicted with St Calepodius and to the right he is with St Dionysius. These are over arcades leading into the side chapels, which have three Corinthian columns each.
The ceiling is painted with the Carmelite coat of arms, and the conch of the apse has a fresco by Luigi Ciotti of 1959 showing St Pancras with other saints. Even the parish website admits that this is not very good. The ancient bishop's throne that used to be in the apse has been lost.
The high altar has a 19th century baldacchino, supported by four ancient porphyry columns. The porphyry sarcophagus below the altar used to contain the lost relics. The original set of four columns was looted by the French in 1798, and were recovered after the restoration of papal government (there seems to be doubt concerning the authenticity of two of them). The present relic of the saint, in a bust reliquary brought from the Lateran, is kept in an aumbry in the right hand nave aisle and is only moved to the altar for veneration on his feast-day of 12 May.
Also looted at the same time, and never recovered, was a pair of highly original and unusual ambos or pulpits in Cosmatesque work executed about 1250. A drawing of one of them is on the "Romeartlover" web-page, and shows what a tragic loss these were.
The French also stripped the interior of the polychrome marble work and mosaic which used to decorate it, in the process destroying another central altar which used to be in the nave below the triumphal arch. This had a baldacchino with four columns of porphyry as well, and two of them were fluted. Are they somewhere in France? The position of this altar can be discerned from fragments attached to one of the nave piers. On either side of this was a low screen wall in polychrome stonework and mosaic, including porphyry panels.
The right hand chapel has an altarpiece depicting St Teresa of Jesus by Palma il Giovane.
The semi-annular crypt of Pope Honorius is below the altar. It runs in a semi-circle under the apse, with a passage leading to below the high altar, and contains some ancient marble slabs.
CatacombsEdit
There are two sets of catacombs entered from the church, which are unusual because they were never lost but were visited through the Middle Ages. The first has its entrance in the left aisle, and is named after one Ottavilla who features in the legend of St Pancras. It has been inaccessible for years, although apparently if you are an archaeologist with a scholarly interest you may be able to get permission for a visit. Possibly.
The other set has its entrance between the third and fourth pillars of the right aisle, and are named after the saint. They are quite extensive, and contain important paintings and graffiti as well as many funerary niches. However, the dimensions of the passages are smaller than those of the more famous public catacombs. There are three important cubicula: one containing a tomb of someone called Botrys Christianos (literally meaning "Christian bunch of grapes"), one named after St Felix which has paintings of ships and fish and, most importantly, one with four tombs which was venerated in the Middle Ages as the shrine of SS Sophia, Fides, Spes and Caritas. These were meant to be martyrs, a mother and three daughters called Wisdom, Faith, Hope and Charity.
These catacombs are still described as being open to the public on occasion, but this is not true. At present they are described as being "closed for renovation", and the word is that they are not going to reopen any time soon.
Note on AccessEdit
Owing to its being some distance from the Centro Storico, this church now gets few pilgrims and fewer tourists. As a result, it is no longer open all day but only from 08:30 to 12:00, 16:30 to 19:00. The walk from Porta San Pancrazio is not a short one. The 44 bus from Piazza Venezia passes close by (get off at Ottavilla/Pamphilj).
